In the construction of a typical game table and, in particular, a billard or pool table a "bumper rail" is provided along the inner marginal edges of the table, against which the balls impinge during the playing of the game. In the well known construction, such bumper rails have an inwardly directed resilient portion formed of rubber or the like so that the proper degree of bounce or ricochet is obtained by the ball. Such bumper rails are generally covered with a cloth of suitable textile material which completely surrounds projecting portions of the rail.
This cloth is usually installed on the rail by stretching a suitable fabric into a taut condition over the exposed face of a rail and the edges of the cloth which extend over the rear surface of the rail is stapled to the rail. The excess fabric after stapling is then trimmed. As can be understood, the installation of this cloth or fabric on a bumper rail under present day techniques requires a high degree of skill and is quite time consuming adding materially to the production costs of such game tables. Furthermore, under the best of conditions, uniformity in tautness throughout the fabric is not always obtained so that the quality standards desired for such pool tables falls short of the desired degree.
The following U.S. patents are representative of the prior art to which the subject invention is directed: Nos.
Moffett 655,503 PA1 Acland 1,323, 516 PA1 Hoskin 1,652,671 PA1 Allman 2,755.088 PA1 Nielsen 3,733,072
The Moffett patent discloses the use of a tubular sleeve for overlying a bumper cushion in a game table wherein the fabric of the sleeve is tensioned by a screw mechanism. In the Hoskin patent a block is utilized to tension the tubular sleeve in a taut condition over the bumper rail. The Acland, Allman and Nielsen patents are substantially different from that of the subject invention and are considered to be not particularly pertinent. All of the installation techniques used in the prior art patents for covering a bumper rail are quite complicated and expensive and do not necessarily provide a uniformly taut sleeve on the bumper rail.